RITA - the monster is coming...

[Amontilado]

Mike,

We had people sleeping everywhere during Ivan and Katrina. In the comms and computer room, in the bathrooms, myself in the mailroom during Ivan (got home after Katrina rolled through, but had to take the long way around). Don't see how they slept in the compter room with all the noise from the air conditioning, but they did.

Steve

 

[txdon]

Mike, are you still on-line?

Looking over south Houston most of the lights are still on. The eye hit about 100 miles to the east. The winds are about 45MPH in Houston. No damage to our building so far. We only lost cable TV. I know we have a lot of TBN members in far SE Texas and SW Louisiana and it looks like they are getting pounded.

 

[mikim]

Was up several times during the night with small issues - last time at 0400 - slept then from 0500 to 0700 - just cleaned the restroom so I & other humans could use it. We're backing up Lake Charles out in ops - building air conditioning went out again when we took a power bump - county is working that - I'm going home --- all the systems are up and likely to stay that way now that the worst has past. I've been here 3 days & nights with way too many people too close for comfort. I'd love to go to Bastrop for a country fix - but just about the time I'd need to come back - so would a million (literally) other people . The wife wants to come back right away - but if she got stuck somewhere - there still isn't any gas anywhere and probably won't be til midweek. Houston lucked out on this one.

 

[jinman]

Thanks Mike & Don; great job of keeping us informed. Mike, I know your job is winding down as Don's is building up. Don, good luck with all the rescue and cleanup efforts. Your stress level must be "through the roof."

 

[txdon]

No stress here Jim. There is very little damage in Houston. At 11:00 A.M. The first helicopters started to fly. Here is a picture of a coastguard helicopter landing at the Astrodome. The winds are still about 25MPH.

The biggest story will now be the 2.7 million stressful people trying to return to the area. The freeways coming into Houston are starting to get jammed and there is little or no fuel on the routes.

 

[beenthere]

The 'rain' reported for Houston this morning was all of about a half inch. Is that about right? Or was there more depending on how far to the East in Houston (about as big as a small state) one would go?
Beumont, TX had about 6", and more wind.

Getting that 'exodus' out of Houston area and now back is quite a momentous 'gas guzzler' in and of itself. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Glad Houston missed the 'big one' called Rita.

 

[txdon]

<font color="blue"> "The 'rain' reported for Houston this morning was all of about a half inch. Is that about right?" </font>

Benthere, here south of downtown, we got about 2" the further east you go the more it rained. most of the rain bands fizzled out at about I45. East of I45 would have had more rain. There is no reported inland flooding from rain in Houston.

 

[texbaylea]

I concur. Mike and TxDon you have been doing a very good job. With the eastward track shift we saw winds of 25-35 mph with a few higher gusts and very little rain. Our roof is ready for replacement and we lost a few shingles from a limb of the Hickory tree blowing around over it. I did not trim it back far enough this past spring.

Mike: when you are recovered and back I would appreciate knowing how Dickinson fared. We lived a mile or two south of your office for 25 years at the intersection of Dickinson Bayou and Benson's Gully (Bayou?).

Thanks, Vernon

 

[btolle]

We live in Jasper, TX but happened to be in Colorado for the last 2 weeks.

I got a report from a very reliable neighbor and it looks like our house got about $500 damage, nothing serious.

He was up all night Friday and couldn't even get out to look at our house until 1 PM Saturday. He said he could see at least 50 downed trees from our front porch. As of 10 AM Saturday morning he had over 10" of rain and it was still raining horizontally.

I told him where the keys to the Kubota were in case he needed it to do any clearing. I wish we were there now to help with the cleanup. We have a Jeep with an 8K winch that would be handy for dragging some trees out of the streets.

We should be home but Wednesday or Thursday evening and I'm sure there will still lots of opportunities to help some with some clean up.

TBN has several members in my area and I hope they are all OK. I have a PM out to DmansPadge who lives in Orange, TX (one of the hardest hit areas) but have not heard from him. I would imagine his Internet access will be down for a while.

Bill Tolle

 

[sneaky_pete]

Glad to hear you are OK Bill, and I hope Ron and other TBN'ers are also. Hopefully we will hear from everyone eventually.